Any season in any league will throw up a remarkable stat or two, but it will surely be hard to top the one produced by the Republic of Ireland’s Dara O’Shea during Ipswich Town’s promotion-winning Championship campaign: he played in every second of their 46 games and didn’t pick up a single yellow card along the way.
That he achieved the feat while stationed at the centre of his side’s rearguard makes it all the more remarkable – how on earth do you get through 4,140 minutes of Championship football when you’re the last line of defence without even once incurring the wrath of the referee for a mistimed tackle, a tug of a shirt and or a bit of cranky dissent?
Hull City’s Matt Crooks certainly couldn’t answer that query. He amassed 13 yellow cards during the season, holding off the challenge, by one, of another nine Championship players for the, well, Ballon d’Bookings. And another 28 hit the double-digit mark in the yellow stakes.
Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna has put his captain’s outstanding season down to discipline, wiliness and the ability to sniff out danger before it actually presents itself. Echoes of Heimir Hallgrímsson’s praise for the 27-year-old Dubliner, who has long since become a fixture at the heart of his defence.
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The most common response from Ipswich fans to the plaudits heaped on O’Shea has been: “I hope we can hold on to him.” When they were relegated in 2024, there was no end of chat about him piquing the interest of some bigger guns, but he stayed put and signed a new five-year contract last summer.
He has, though, suffered relegation from the Premier League with West Brom, Burnley and Ipswich, so if he was to endure the ordeal yet again he might finally decide his footballing life’s far too short for this yo-yo existence. He should avoid Spurs, though.
Slaven Bilic has had a bit of a yo-yo managerial career himself, but, on reflection, one of his smarter moves was to see the potential in O’Shea. “I am gonna praise him, because I know he ain’t gonna be ‘big time’,” he said after he gave him his English league debut, for West Brom, back in 2019. “Dara is the future. I believe in him. He is a player. I love Dara.”
Mind you, O’Shea was probably lucky not to have been fired by the club he joined as a 16-year-old from St Kevin’s. Eleven years ago this month, come the end of the English football season, he offered his services to his old GAA club St Jude’s ahead of their Dublin Under-16 B Football Championship final against Parnell’s. If West Brom had found out, smoke would have emitted from their ears.
Jude’s were, no doubt, happy enough to have taken up their former star player’s offer – playing at corner-forward in the final, he contributed 3-8 to their 34-point pulverising of Parnell’s, earning himself the player of the match award. Considering he hadn’t played Gaelic football for six months, it was decent going. And he didn’t pick up a card in that match either.
He was, understandably, emotional after that triumph, as he was after leading Ipswich to promotion. Not as emotional, mind, as Ipswich CEO Mark Ashton, who was filmed singing a tribute to rivals Norwich City’s former part-owner Delia Smith: “She does meat and potata, we ****ing hate her.”
O’Shea displayed a touch more decorum. “It means everything,” he said of the club’s promotion. “It’s what we set out to do at the start of the season. I’m so proud to lead this group of players and lead these people and town back to the Premier League. We’ve got to cherish these moments.”
Some season for O’Shea. An ever-present, and just the 4,140 minutes without being booked. Jack Charlton would have been appalled.
